Church Planting Movements Glossary

Cell churches: small church bodies of believers, generally 10-30 per unit, meeting in homes or storefronts, fulfilling the five purposes of a church and linked to one another in some type of structured network. Often this network is part of a larger, single church identity.

Chronological Bible storying: a method of evangelizing a people by relating to them, in a culturally suitable manner, the great stories of the Bible from creation to redemption to the return of Christ.

Church Planting Movement: a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment.

End-vision: the ultimate and overarching aim of a strategy or plan of action. In a CPM-oriented strategy, it is the end-vision that informs and measures the relative value of every objective, goal and action step.

Ethos: the esprit d'corps or spirit of the group. In a CPM ethos, there is an attitude and climate of opinion that passionately aspires toward a Church Planting Movement.

Exogenous: originating outside of the local environment; foreign, extraneous in origin.

Exponential growth: growth characterized by each part multiplying itself. Thus 2x2=4 and 4x4=16, etc., in exponential growth. This contrasts with incremental growth.

House churches: small bodies of approximately 10-30 believers meeting in homes or storefronts, which (unlike cell groups) are generally not organized under a single authority or hierarchy of authorities.

Incremental growth: growth by addition. Thus a base number of 10 churches might add a few churches each year. This contrasts with exponential growth.

Indigenous: generated from within or capable of originating from within the local context. This contrasts with exogenous.

MAWL (Model, Assist, Watch and Leave): the rhythm of implementing church planting that contributes to a Church Planting Movement as a missionary models a CPM, assists the new believers in planting CPM-oriented churches, watches to see that they and the churches are reproducing and then leaves in order to begin a new MAWL cycle.

Mentoring: a form of teaching that includes walking alongside the person you are teaching and inviting him or her to learn from your example.

POUCH churches: a method of church planting describing churches that are characterized by the following: Participative Bible study and worship groups, Obedience to God's word, development of Unpaid and multiple lay or bivocational church leaders and meeting in Cell or House churches.

Precision harvesting: a strategic placement of church planters in contact with seekers or new believers who already have been identified and cultivated through their response to mass evangelism.

Response filtering and feedback loops: employing methods for registering response to mass evangelism efforts for purposes of follow up discipleship and church planting.

RLTP (Rural Leadership Training Program): a program of on-the-job training for church planters and church leaders developed in Cambodia aimed at practical, short-term modules of training designed to keep students engaged in their ministry while they learn.

Strategy coordinator: a missionary who takes responsibility for developing a comprehensive plan aimed at initiating and nurturing a Church Planting Movement among an unreached people group or population segment.

Subsidies: foreign funds used to support pastors and other church workers. This is generally counterproductive for a Church Planting Movement.